Synopsis: The largest storm to
hit Oklahoma in more than half a century
is brewing, and it promises to drop
multiple twisters into Tornado Alley.
It's the storm that two rival groups of
scientists—Jo Harding and her band of
brash university students, and
corporate-sponsored Dr. Jonas Miller and
his sleek, crack cadre with their
state-of-the-art research vans—have been
waiting for to earn their place in
meteorological history. Each team wants
to be the first to launch their own
equipment pack inside a twister to
transmit valuable scientific data about
tornado behavior. But to do so, they
must put themselves directly in the path
of the marauding monster—and stay always
just ahead of the swirling twister,
anticipating its every move. Adding to
the charged atmosphere, Jo's
soon-to-be-ex-husband, meteorologist
Bill Harding, reluctantly joins Jo and
his old crew for this last, epic chase.

The Film:

Effects apart, this is dire:
predictable, clichéd, sloppily written,
pitifully performed and surprisingly
short of real shocks and suspense. The
story can be described in two ways: as a
rip-off of Only Angels Have Wings, in
which Paxton's implausibly intuitive
tornado expert is torn between two
women, his ex (Hunt) and his fiancée (Gertz),
and two lives, a safe weatherman job, or
a risky return to the group of crazily
devoted storm-chasers trying to get a
gizmo up inside a twister's 'suck-zone';
or as a repetitive spectacle where all
that happens is that the objects hurled
around in the air simply get bigger.
Forget the many redundant references to
The Wizard of Oz, this hasn't a
fraction of that movie's logic,
imagination or ambitions. Seriously
depressing.

Image: I may be slightly biased
as I am not a fan of this film to any
degree, but this dual-layered
Blu-ray
didn't hold up to my visual
expectations. Ushering in a new wave of
special effects at the time - Twister
(almost 15-years old now) seems quite
dated in that area and the anticipated
appearance on the grandeur of 1080P
leaves a bit to be desired. I have no
doubt as to the improvement over the
2-disc standard-definition

(simultaneously
released) but aside from a more
pronounced color palette and some
occasionally attractive detail - like
the film itself - it is not fulfilling any
perceived promise of entertainment. Now,
saying that, it is quite competent,
without major flaw (noise is very
minimal) but the image has softness and just never 'wow'ed
me as so many of the new format discs can
tend to do - even for films much older.
There is very little in the way of
depth. Outdoor scenes can look
excellent - clear, clean, bright and
fairly sharp but the special effects
tend to look kind of fuzzy in hi-def and
as the film was carried almost
exclusively on that factor (flying cows
et all) - when that has you yawning,
this
Blu-ray
doesn't have a lot of reason
for recommendation in my opinion.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio & Music: We are given a
lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track at
around 2000 kbps (and standard 5.1 and
French DUB). It sounded quite good to my
ear. There is some separation -
depth is also exclamatory during the more 'devastating'
sequences and overall the TrueHD lives
up to anticipation. Dialogue is
obviously, very clean and clear
supported by English or French subtitles. My Momitsu
has identified
it as being a region FREE disc playable on
Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Extras: I actually preferred the extras to
the film itself especially the
Anatomy of a Twister, and both the
History Channel and HBO documentaries.
The commentary was a bit painful, ditto
for the 'making of' as those involved
seemed to take the film a lot more
seriously than I did. 'Twister'
whets the appetite for tornado
information and I actually wish there
was more factual details than presented
but it was decent to add the featurette
supplements - so good job on that front
Warner.

Bottom line: Well for those
expecting a more extravagant 1080P treat, I am sorry to
be the bearer of bad news. The film, is
so silly, in itself it is approaching
'horrible' (I kind of like the 'hammy'
Paxton though) and the
Blu-ray
falls
decidedly short of contemporary examples
of, more modern, similar genre flicks
for image quality in this new format.
The extras are good but for those bent
purchasing this as a potential demo for
friends - there are many better examples
out there. So, that's a thumbs down from
this reviewer.